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12+ years of experience in the design field ranging from Print & Web Design and Production working in-house for ad agencies, POP & Tradeshow Displays for print manufacturers and freelance Packaging Design for retail. Frequent graphic novel contributor and creator of custom typefaces.

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One of the many pitfalls of the internet is the ease in which one’s presence can become fragmented. I started with Blogger, then tried out WordPress. Created a Comicspace account, lost the password and now cannot retrieve it (and no one there will return my emails). I frequent Gutterzombie boards. And recently began updating the content on my DeviantArt page. Plus there is Facebook and the countless other individual blogs and newsfeeds that I read/skim daily. That all being said, I am suspending entries here. I may return with an occasional Rampant Hackery, but dwelling in that negative state can make a man downtrodden. In the interest of simplification (I know, what am I thinking?!?), you will find my current works at the following:

Come on! Really?! First it’s movie posters and logos, now I have to watch album cover designs too?! WTF, people?! I don’t have time for this unoriginal, unimaginative, derivative crap! Released one year apart, almost to the day?!

Yes there are differences. One has a straight line and the other has a curved line. One is light on the top, the other light on the bottom. One is sand, the other, water. Other than that I am having a hard time finding reason that the designers of the U2 cover were not partially (if not wholly) influenced by the NIN cover.

A DJ for a local radio station broadcast that he thought NIN was just about “irrelevant”. This was just as With Teeth was being released. Is this is some feeble attempt at the subliminal? Ghosts was one of the top selling albums of 2008 (due to price point of $5 and newly independent status). Is U2 more in danger of becoming “irrelevant”? Or has that time already passed?

See, I can’t turn it off even when I’m passing through the living room with the tv on. Out of the corner of my eye I see behind Mickey Rourke at the Golden Globes a logo that sets my mind to work. Like a Google image search, only better and faster.

So, what is the remotely possible excuse for this hackery? Beats me. The Golden Compass is not that old. The designer was working from home that last night of the deadline? The kids run into the room with the dvd and ask to watch it? Then as he walks back to his laptop with the case in hand…inspiration strikes?

Apparently, it is more prevalent than I had thought! Not solely limited to DVD covers and movie posters. Television award ceremony title design has fallen to the rampant hackery, the biblical creeping death of designers everywhere. DESIGNERS! THE DESIGN PLAGUES ARE UPON US! CHECK YOUR DOORS FOR LAMB’S BLOOD TONIGHT!

Here we are again for another installment of Rampant Hackery. While this is not as blatant as last episode, but this should not have been the first thing to pop into my head either. The streaky/static lines in the background. The blue faded backgrounds. The faint white glow around the featured players. THE SAME DAMN FONTS?! No, I take it back this is hackery. Blatant and obvious. Oh, and dit I mention that Enemy of the State was released in 1998? And that Eagle Eye came out in 2008? Hmmmm? Exactly 10 years apart. What a coicidence!

Maybe I just need to start hunting down this crap design work. Showing to the Hollywood bigwigs that are paying six and seven figures for this unoriginal, uninspired hack design campaigns and I’LL take the next summer blockbuster ad campaign. Any studio willing to take me up on the offer, I’ll only charge half of whatever you paid for that Eagle Eye garbage.

I have not seen the movie (I will, I promise). From what I’ve heard it’s pretty good. I just cannot let this kind of shabbycrap continue. I guess I need to look for an art director job somwhere so I can shoot this stuff down before it ever leaves the ad agency servers.

I did not see it in the theaters. I work a lot of hours and I have kids. But I pre-ordered it via Amazon. Well it shipped. and was sitting on my doorstep the day before street date. I love Amazon. So I’ll be watching it in mere moments and the rest of you have to wait until tomorrow. Hey, I have to take the small victories when I ca.

And before anyone says anything, yes, I know I blog in very staccoto, irregular bursts. Like sun flares and vommiting.

Things you can “dig” on today (not the annoying Digg button you see on everyone and their grandma’s website, but as in the old school “dig” like Jules in Pulp Fiction):

I once was a rabid fan of Stephen King’s early books and have not paged through one in some years. At one time I found him to be too wordy (gravitating towards Clive Barker, who I have lost touch with). But King’s regular column (alternating weekly with Diablo Cody and Mark Harris) in Entertainment Weekly is enjoyable, funny and at times hysterical. Check out this week’s column and find out that even successful authors call it Wally World too!